But by midweek, Brockton’s 10-year-old rapper had hit the pages and airwaves of news outlets from Brockton to Los Angeles, London and Taiwan.

Some say the fourth grader’s star was already on the rise after working with big names in hip-hop like French Montana and P. Diddy, – but Lil Poopy reached a new level of celebrity – and notoriety – this past week following a story in The Sunday Enterprise about some of the controversial lyrics and images in his music videos and live performances.

Murray Forman, a Northeastern University professor and resident hip-hop culture expert, compared the boy to the reality shows featured on TLC about young girls competing in beauty pageants.

“This is hip-hop’s version of ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ and Lil Poopy is its ‘Honey Boo Boo,” he told The Enterprise.

Forman called it a combination of the “cuteness factor” and the “oh my god factor.”

“This is where bad taste and what may be inappropriate context are colliding with legal issues,” he said.

Luie Rivera Jr., the 10-year-old who performs as Lil Poopy, had been gaining notoriety in recent months for rapping with a group called the Coke Boys and calling himself a cocaine cowboy.

Some of his videos posted on YouTube show him dancing suggestively with and slapping the bottoms of grown women.

The day after the story appeared in The Sunday Enterprise, Brockton police filed a report that triggered an investigation by the state Department of Children and Families for alleged abuse or neglect of a child under the age of 18.

Luie lives in the city with his father, Luis Rivera, who’s had previous run-ins with the law.

Brockton attorney Joseph Krowski Jr., who represents the family, said the videos are “urban authentic” and “entertainment.”

It’s the combination of a pre-pubescent rapper and accusations of child abuse that thrust the story into the international spotlight, said Chi Chi Izundu, entertainment reporter for BBC Radio 1 based in London.

“It’s a really interesting story because it’s almost ridiculous,” Izundu said in a telephone interview with The Enterprise from London.

“He is so young and incredibly adorable and he is literally named after human excrement and he is rapping,” she said. “But it’s actually quite a serious story because of the accusation of child abuse.”

Izundu said the story of America’s tween rapper Lil Poopy was all over the British newspapers and a popular topic of conversation last week.

Krowski said his phone hasn’t stopped ringing with calls from news outlets looking for the family to appear or comment.

Krowski said that on Monday, phone calls started coming in from local newspapers and television stations. By Thursday, Krowski had fielded requests from ABC News Radio, ABC News website, Telemundo, BBC in London, The Dr. Phil Show, Anderson Cooper's show, CNN, 20/20 and The Associated Press.

Krowski said the story also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Miami Herald, a newspaper in Taiwan and “every website of note.”

Local sports talk radio stations even suspended talk of Tom Brady’s contract and the Bruins’ power-play troubles to talk about the pint-sized rapper.

Krowski said he and the family will wait until the 15-day state investigation is wrapped up before they decide on media appearances.

“It’s a unique situation where a police department has looked into an entertainment product and referred it to DCF, and that has captured a lot of people,” he said.

“Luie Jr. knows there’s extra attention focused on him but he’s just living his life, going to school and doing his homework, so it hasn’t affected him at all,” Krowski said.

Forman said he talked about the case with his students at Northeastern University.

“It’s a knee-jerk reaction whenever something offends the taste and the moral boundaries of the mainstream, there’s an overreaction,” he said.

“This kid is caught up in something much bigger than him,” he added. “The national attention will be riveted for the moment and then it will move on to the next atrocity.”

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.